QB 52 
.T58 
1883 
Copy 1 



•raSTYSfi&r rS^XYS^^Y^^3YS^JYSS5SrY3k - 





J 



BRIDGING THE SKIES, 



BY 




T. RUGGLES TIMBY, A.M., S.D. 



*1553* 



^m0g^-/0i 



FOL3A19X T V 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1833, by 
T. RUGGLES TIMBY, , 
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



X 



Qftfz 
.Is? 



*PPE£GE* 



An hour's entertainment among the stars. 

Intellectual and moral force of their study. 

The universe, and its breadth. 

Telescopes and discoveries, past, present and future. 

The sun and solar worlds, 

Comets, their flight, size and purpose. 

The stars and star depths. 

God's purpose and omnipotence. 



I have endeavored to arrange my subject in a way best 
calculated to entertain intelligent people. 

T will treat it from my own standpoint, so far as opinion not 
quoted shall be made a part of the effort ; that I alone may be 
responsible for such heresy, as may be discovered in Philosophy, 
Theory, or Logic minus accepted endorsement ; not forgetting 
that much of what is accepted in the study of astronomy, is 
deduction from these factors. 

It is safe to say that the mind of the student is improved 
by the study of any of the natural sciences, and, I know of no 
other so well calculated to inspire reverence and adoration of 
the Deity, as the study of the starry universe, and the laws that 
regulate and govern it ; nor is there another study so well 
calculated to give breadth and elevation to intellectual capacity 
as the study of the heavens. 

A broader knowledge of the skies, gives us a better 
knowledge of their Maker. 

Example : They who supposed the world to be flat, and to 
rest on a rock all the way down, knew less of the great Architect 
of the Universe, than did Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton, 
or the great Leverrier, who told the Berlin astronomers where to 
look for an undiscovered planet. 

I refer to the wonderful discovery of Neptune. 

To my reason, the more comprehensive our understanding, 
especially of astronomical science, the nearer we approach the 
Deitv. 



And every new discovery, in the grand study of astronomical 
wonders, is the opening of another window, in the skies, and in 
the soul. 

And while the Godlike spirit in man may lift him up and 
press him on, to the discovery of countless other worlds, and 
worlds beyond, through unborn years, and the whirl of ages, and 
the lapse of time may add its many fold, to his accumulated 
knowledge, of that, which " God hath wrought" in the skies, still 
there will remain, a boundless expanse, of undiscovered worlds, 
which can only be considered as coextensive with Infinity ; for 
God's physical universe is without limit! 

It is as broad as eternity is lonsr ! 

Ton may consider the length of the one to be the breadth 
of the other. 

Of this boundless universe, the Solar System, so grand, so 
vast, and so much beyond our comprehension ; is comparatively 
an atom. 

This atom we will briefly consider in connection with other 
worlds vastly more remote than any of the planets. 

And in this connection I think something about astronomical 
instruments, with which to reach, read, reason, and study these 
distant worlds, would interest you. 

Then in brief, I will say, there are two kinds of telescopes 
now in use ; one is known as a reflector, and I think of the 
two this is the more powerful, but there seems to be an 
impracticability in mounting this kind of glass in a way to make 
it available to an observer beyond a very limited field. 



All have read of Lord Rosse's great telescope ; this is a 
reflector, and T suppose it to be the most powerful glass yet 
constructed, but its availability is so limited (compared with a 
refractor) as to make its use of but little importance. 

What is known as a refractor may be mounted equatorially 
so as to enable an astronomer to observe every part of the 
heavens above the horizon. 

We will speak of this latter class, as they are the available 
instrument. 

To make a set of large achromatic, refracting lenses, involves 
great risk and requires great patience, talent and a large capital ; 
and the risk and cost of making is very greatly increased, with 
a very small addition in size and power. 

In fact everything pertaining to the making and mounting 
of a large telescope requires the highest order of mechanics, 
combined with mathematical exactness. 

It is one thing to properly finish a set of large lenses and 
quite another to make a set of large blank disks, worth finishing, 
and the latter is the one great obstacle encountered in each, and 
every attempt, in making telescopes. 

Finishing requires great skill, but there is less risk in the 
undertaking. 

And in this Blank Disk department of telescope making, 1 
believe there are but two parties — Channce & Co., of Birmingham. 
England, and the Philes of Paris ; both parties have inherited 
their profession. 

I think Kepler attempted the first astronomical glass, but 
did not succeed. 



In this case, as in many other failures, it was a germ of 
success. 

Then came the great Galileo, with his chromatic glass, and 
although a crude and imperfect instrument, it was a great and 
glorious achievement ; it was a finger-board pointing direct to 
other worlds, an open window to the skies. 

The next invention in telescopes was by Peter Dolland, of 
Kensington. England, in 1765. 

This was the discovery of a method for producing a perfect 
achromatic refracting glass. 

But as great and important as this discovery was, and is, 
it added many fold to the difficulty and cost of making ; and 
to-day, the largest mounted set of refracting lenses in the world, 
is but 27 inches in diameter, with a focal length of 35 feet ; this 
instrument is in the Vienna Observatory ; only 24 inches added 
to the diameter of Galileo's glass in 170 years. 

I believe that Alvan Clarke <fe Sons, of Cambridgeport 
Massachusetts, are the most noted lens makers in the world. 

These parties made the lenses for the large equatorial in 
the Washington Astronomical Observatory. 

This glass is 26 inches in diameter, and has a focal length 
of 31 1-2 feet, and cost $50,000. 

The 20 inch glass at Cambridge, and the 24 inch glass at 
Princeton, are of the Clark's finishing. 

All large blanks, however, are made abroad. 

The blanks for the 27 inch Vienna glass was made in Paris, 
and finished in Dublin. 



Messrs. Clark & Sons have lately finished a set of 30 inch 
lenses for the Russian Government; the instrument, when 
finished, will have a focal length of a little more than 45 feet. 

The same parties have under contract, a set of 36 inch 
lenses for the Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton, in 
California. 

This set will have a focal length of about 60 feet, and will 
require at least five years to finish. 

The size and position of the Lick Glass, when finished and 
mounted, promise good results, and the reputation of Count 
Struve, who will have charge of the 30 inch Russian glass, 
would indicate comparative satisfaction. 

There is, of course, a limit, to the size and power to which 
a perfect set of achromatic refracting lenses may be constructed ; 
but that limit is not yet reached, and to make a set of 70 inch 
refracting lenses, with a focal length of 95 feet, I believe to be 
quite possible. 

Such a glass would concentrate nearly seven times the 
light of the Vienna instrument. 

It would be a new light to the world, with its concomitant 
revelations. 

It w T ould enable a close inspection of nearly every portion 
of the planetary system. 

Important facts would be revealed in detail, as they really 
are ; differing very much from what they now appear, as seen 
through glasses of inferior power. 



8 



It would leave little, if any, of the sun's disk, or the disks 
of the planets to hypothesis, and such a power would bridge 
the way and light our reason, far beyond the solar realms, the 
Polar Star, or Milky Way. 

With such a glass, the real character of the sun's disk, the 
mottled face of Venus and Mars, Jupiter's belts and Saturn's 
belts and rings, would cease to be mysteries. 

Comets would no longer excite fear or speculation. 

We would then see that God made these strangers (as they 
are called) for a special and very important purpose. 

And here let me say, the divinity in man, which enables 
him to go from an intelligent consideration of the anatomy of his 
hand, to a logical hypothesis of the physical constitution of 
yonder star, in one and the same breath, will, in time, enable 
him to investigate many of the other worlds by bridging the 
skies, with vastly more powerful instruments, than any now 
thought of. 

With continued accumulation of knowledge, it is almost 
certain that discoveries will yet be made in some of the far off 
worlds ; which will result in benefitting, both the mental and 
physical, condition of man. 

And this conclusion is more in harmony with our reason 
to-day, than would have been an indorsement (forty years ago) 
of the practical value of the Telegraph, or a similar confidence 
expressed in the possibilities of the Telephone, a decade since. 

There was a time in the history of man, when, with the 
destruction of a single monument, or library, the records of all 
human discovery, would have perished to the world. 



9 



But such a possibility, either by conflagration or revolution, 
can never again exist in the future of our race. 

Neither will there be a time in our future, when man will 
cease to advance, in physical and intellectual conquest, 

Other routes, and wider logic, will bridge the broadest 
intervening space in the way of his onward and never ending 
destiny. 

Reaching farther and farther, into the depths of immensity, 
vastly beyond the present, Ansible confines of the universe. 

For next to the universe in extent, are the breadth and 
forces of the human mind. 

There are no words, terms, expressions, or rule, with which 
to define or measure the degree of worth and satisfaction, which 
a well defined map of Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, would 
afTord an intelligent and educated people, and all this can and 
will be realized to the world at a less cost of time and treasure 
than has been spent in an effort to discover and map the north 
polar region. 

That some of the other planets are inhabited by intelligent 
beings there can be no reasonable doubt. 

For what good, especially their satellites, if the planets 
hold not intellectual life, similar to that of man. 

May not Saturn, so much more exalted and embellished 
than the other planets with the light, and beauty of her belts, 
rings and moons, be the abode of wiser and better men. 

This may be worthy of a thought. 

Surely the physical character of these distant worlds are 
not beyond the reach of human ken. 



10 



o 



As the other planets differ from ours and each other in 
magnitude, motion, orbit and distance from the great fountain 
of light and heat, is it not reasonable to conclude that they may 
differ as much in their chemical composition and color. 

If so, it is equally logical to suppose that color may give 
the same degree of light and heat at a greater or less distance 
from the sun. 

To my mind such a position is not only logical, but wholly 
probable, as 1 have shown in papers upon this subject, published 
in 1877. 



And here we will briefly review the prominent and familiar 
features of the Solar System in a general way, and in so doing 
we will regard the sun as its grand focal centre, around which 
all the planets of our system move in perfect order, time and 
harmony. 

And when I consider the magnitude and splendor, and the 
life-giving power of this great central orb, I do not wonder it 
should have inspired a spirit of adoration in the hearts of 
unenlightened and superstitious men. 

This heathen Deity, however, when but partially investigated, 
proves to be an incandescent globe or ball of living fire, 860,000 
miles in diameter, revolving on its axis once in about 25 days. 

This would give the rotary motion of the sun at its equator 
a little more than 100,000 miles in 24 hours, or more than four 
times the velocity of the earth at its equator. 



11 



And there can be no doubt, as to its having an annual 
motion like that of the planets in their revolution, or circuit 
around him. but at the present time there are no glasses of 
sufficient power, to enable astronomers to form a valid estimate 
either as to its period, or to locate the centre of its orbit, even 
an approximate centre of this second motion I regard as but 
little better than conjecture, certainly not reliable. 

Some astronomers have located this centre somewhere in 
the pleiades. 

It may or may not be correct. 

But like the stars, its revolution around some distant 
centre, is real, together with its retinue of attendant worlds, and 
it is estimated that this whirl of shinlvg worlds are carried 
forward in space with a velocity equal to 400,000 miles per day. 



Different theories have been advanced as to its physical 
interior, none of which can be proven or disproven. 

For as li^ht as the sun is, its interior will ever remain in 
darkness to us, no finite vision will ever penetrate the depths of 
that stormy, shoreless, ocean, of glowing hydrogen. 

We have the authority of such men as Professors Proctor, 
Trouvelot, and others, that storms and cyclones, have been 
observed on the sun's surface to rage with a fury : corresponding 
in force and energy, to its temperature, motion, and magnitude. 



12 



The same authority vouches for disturbances of a still more 
violent and remarkable nature, to have been observed (on the 
sun's disk,) as if by sub-solar explosion, vast volumes of 
incandescent matter, in mass, much larger than the earth, are 
thrown off to the seemingly incredible distance, of 250,000 
miles, and then drawn back into the sun with a force equal to 
that which expelled it. 



For a moment, we will regard the sun's forces, to be 
sustained by an immutable law, and this law to make matter 
perpetual in growth, regular and perfect in chemical changes, 
from primitive, infinitesimal, transparent germs, to the gaseous, 
liquid, meteoric and solid, in natural order and purpose, for 
which this law was designed. 

We will suppose this matter to pervade infinite space, and 
to gravitate in germs and in semi -organic or meteoric form, to 
all the various primaries and their subordinates in the universe, 
giving energy and vitality to the sun, and magnitude to the 
planets. 



The sun's vital forces, are God's appointed authority, tor all 
of nature's physical changes within the limit of the solar domain. 

He gives us every zephyr, every cooling breeze, every gale, 
every cloud, and every storm ; He gives us every dew drop, every 
rain drop, and every flake of snow ; He gives us every brooklet, 
every river, every lake, and every inland sea. 



13 



From him, every leaf, every blade of grass and every flower 
receive their life, form, tint and fragrance. 

The mountains, fall before his face, 

A silent homage, seem to pay, 
He speeds the floods, their course to trace, 

And rolls the tempests on their way. 

He frets and calms, the restless sea, 

And charms to life the frozen land ; 
He warms the plain, and shades the lea, 

And fans the burning desert sand. 

He crowned Himalayas lofty dome, 

And drew the eternal frostline there; 
He lights the feet, of coming morn, 

And fires the wandering evening star. 

But what is more wonderful than all is, His absence gives 
us night, and with it a universe. 

I can conceive of nothing more expressive or beautiful, than 
the following borrowed thought, upon the subject of night. 

He says : 

" Mysterious night ! when our first parent knew thee, from report divine, and 
heard thy name ; did lie not tremble for this lovely frame, this glorious canopy of 
blue ? yet, neath the curtain of translucent dew ! bathed in the rays of the great 
setting flame, Hesperus, with the host of heaven came, and lo ! creation widened 
in man's view. Who could have thought such darkness lay concealed, within thy 
beams O Sun ! or who could find while leaf and insect la} 7 revealed, that to such 
countless orbs thou mad'st us blind." 

Solar spots have been observed for more than a thousand 
years, and, like everything else, not understood, have been 
regarded with suspicion. 

How often we are reminded of the adage : " They condemn 
that which they do not understand." 

So these spots, like comets, have been regarded with 
popular fear and apprehension. 



14 



It appears to me that God has a special and benevolent 
purpose in all his work, and I believe these spots on the sun's 
disk may have a double purpose, one of which may be to enable 
us to determine the exact time of the sun's rotation on its axis ; 
another purpose may be to teach us charity. 

There are times when the sun's disk appears to be clear, 
but such are not common. 

From 20 to 100 spots may be counted almost any day, with 
the aid of a good glass ; they vary in size from 1000 to 100,000 
miles in diameter ; they represent almost every variety of form 
and shape. 

Some of the largest and most noted of these spots are 
spanned with glowing bridges, many thousand miles in length 
and height. 

Tt should be borne in mind that whiie these spots look 
black, they are by no means so in fact ; in reality they are a 
brilliant red ; but on the glowing face of the sun. they appear 
black, just as an electric light would appear on the sun's disk. 

We will never be quite certain as to their physical 
character until we have glasses of much greater power than any 
now in use, or in process of construction. 

Probably, however, they are unconsumed cinders of foreign 
matter drawn into the sun from time to time, and now helpless 
hulks on a stormy sea of tire, naturally drifting towards the 
sun's equator, to be consumed in forces of greater intensity. 

Other cinders of a similar kind may take their places from 
the same natural causes, and for the same benevolent purpose. 



15 

Next to the sun is the solar family. 

We will review it briefly. 

So on our route from the sun to Neptune, you will notice 
that of this system of worlds no two are alike. 

How wonderful, and yet true, that God seems to make no 
two things exactly alike; no two grains of sand, of sea or desert; 
no two rocks or hills, streams, lakes, seas, or worlds, are made 
alike; and all this for a purpose, and that purpose we may never 
fully understand in this life. 



At the distance of thirteen million miles, on our journey, we 
enter the reputed realms of Vulcan. 

We would like to make his acquaintance and learn 
something definite as to his constitution, his travels, and his 
daily round. 

But inquiry developes the surprising fact that his majesty 
seldom, if ever, allows himself to be interviewed. 

He has the reputation, however, of making a journey around 
the sun every twenty days ; this would make his time about 
55,000 miles an hour. 



Thirty-six million miles on our route, we cross the Orbit of 
Mercury. 



16 



This planet is 3,000 miles in diameter, and revolves on its 
axis once in twenty-four hours, and makes its journey around 
the sun once in eighty-eight days, at the wonderful rapid motion 
in space of more than 100,000 miles an hour ; ot its surface and 
atmosphere very little is positively known. 



On our way, sixty-six million miles, we enter the Orbit of 
Venus ; to us, the most brilliant of all the planets. 

Venus, is 7,500 miles in diameter, and revolves on her axis 
in nearly the same time as the earth, and she makes her circuit 
around the sun in 225 days, moving in space 80,000 miles an 
hour. 



Ninety-two million miles on our route, we rind ourselves at 
home with mother earth, enjoying the whirl of a thousand miles an 
hour in one direction, and a thousand miles a minute, in another. 

There is much of interest that might be said of this planet, 
but I can think of nothing new. 

For long since, men have explored every mountain, every 
valley, desert, island, strand ; they have rounded every headland, 
and crossed every waste of sand ; they have surveyed every 
river, every delta, lake and bay ; they have mapped out every 
ocean, archipelago, sound and sea 

There is one interesting fact, however, that may have 
escaped your notice, or memory, viz. : that the sun or the moon 
shines perpetually upon the poles of the earth, or in other words, 
the poles in the absence of the sun, have the light of the moon, 
they are never without the light one or the other. 



17 



At the distance of 140 million miles on our way, we cross 
the Orbit of the Dusky Warrior Mars, as he is called, a brief 
survey of his surroundings makes him 14,000 miles in girth. 

He revolves on his axis in twenty-four hours and forty 
minutes, and makes his circuit around the sun in 668 of his 
days, with the velocity in space of 54,000 miles per hour ; he 
has an atmosphere and face very similar to that of the earth. 

He is said to have two Satellites. 



Between Mars and Jupiter is a zone of about 100 million 
miles in breadth, in which there are a great, but an unknown 
number of small planets, varying in size, revolution and orbit ; 
the largest is less than a thousand miles in diameter. 

Of their origin there are various theories ; one is, that they 
are fragments of a disrupted planet of great dimensions, but I 
cannot harmonize the disruption of worlds with my idea of the 
Deity. 

It has been wisely said, " There is a careful fitting whereby 
the plan is always moulded to accomplish an end, is every where 
characteristic of nature, and is a continual revelation of its 
common author." 

To me this philosophy would not indicate disruption. 



At the mean distance of 475 million miles on our route, we 
enter the Orbit of Jupiter, the largest of all the planets, and 
in volume larger than all the other planets, and next to Saturn 
the most wonderful. 



18 



He is 88,000 miles in diameter, and in volume 1,400 times 
larger than the earth ; he revolves on his axis once in ten hours, 
making his days and nights five hours each ; his circuit around 
the sun is made in little less than twelve of our years ; his 
velocity in space is more than 700,000 miles per day ; its 
equatorial diameter exceeds its polar diameter about 5,000 
miles ; his belts are colored parallel zones running parallel to 
his equator, and they appear to shift their positions not 
unfrequently. 

The physical character of these belts is a problem of great 
interest to the study and a much more powerful glass than any 
now in use will be required for its solution. 

He has the attendance of four Satellites, or worlds, for one 
of them is larger than the planet Mercury, and any of them 
larger than the minor planets between him and Mars. 

These Satellites differ in color, size, motion and orbit, and 
their period is from 1 1-2 to 19 1-2 siderial days. 

The first and second have a blueish tint, the third is yellow 
and the fourth a reddish shade. 

In their Orbit they occupy a space of 2 1-2 million miles in 
diameter. 

On our journey of 872 million miles we enter the Orbit of 
Saturn ; this Deity is the most ancient of all the heathen Gods, 
and judging from the number of his retainers and the splendor 
of his jewels, I should regard him not only the most ancient, but 
the richest prince of them all. 



19 



tie is 235 000 miles in girth, and revolves on his axis once 
in 10 hours and 30 minutes, and makes the circuit of his 
immense Orbit of rive billions, 250 million miles in 30 terrestrial 
years, moving in space 21,000 miles an hour ; his volume is 
750 times that of the earth. 

Beside his retinue of eight Satellites or minor worlds, he 
has a system of belts and rings surrounding him, all differing in 
magnitude, tint, motion and orbit. 

These rings vary in breadth of from 10,000 to 18,000 miles, 
and they, too, revolve around the body of the planet. 

The circumference of the ring system is 550,000 miles ; 
their thickness is variously estimated from 100 to 500 miles; 
and their physical character is unknown. 

His different Satellites, as I have said, vary in their Orbits 
and periods; the one nearest him has an Orbit of about 300,000 
miles in diameter ; and the one most remote, an Orbit of four 
and a half million miles in diameter ; and the Orbits of the other- 
six, of course, are between these two limits. 

One billion 754 million miles from the sun we enter the 
dominion of Uranus ; this planet was discovered by Sir William 
Herschel in 1781 ; it is known to have at least four moons, and 
their motion, strange to say, are retrogade, i. e. they move in the 
direction of the hands of a clock which is contrary to the motion 
of all other known Satellites. 

This planet is supposed to be 33,000 miles in diameter, and 
to make his circuit around the sun in 84 of our years ; little or 
nothing is known of its constitution, surface, or atmosphere ; its 
motion in space is 300,000 miles per day. 



20 



At a distance of two billions 750 million miles from the sun 
we have reached the Orbit of Neptune and find ourselves at the 
end of our solar journey, and, so far as we know, at the outer 
limit of the Solar system. 

This planet was discovered in 1846, and its discovery was 
the result of calculations made by the great Leverrier, pointing 
direct to it before discovery, and is regarded the greatest 
achievement of the human mind. 

Neptune is 37.000 miles in diameter, and, in volume, 100 
times larger than the earth; he makes his circuit around the sun 
in 165 of our years, moving in space 288,000 miles per day. 



We next come to that eccentric class of celestial bodies 
known as comets ; these flaming heralds, unlike the planets, 
appear in every quarter of the heavens and move in every 
conceivable direction, and appear, in no degree, subject to the 
laws which regulate the Solar worlds; were they subject to the 
laws of attraction and gravitation, such of them as came within 
the solar limit, would plunge headlong into the Sun's consuming 
flames ; but on the contrary, they fearlessly approach, his very 
breath, and at the bidding of Omnipotence, they take their 
departure to other systems, with the same rapidity of flight 
which marked their advent here. 

They always have and ever will attract great attention from 
all classes ; they have excited the admiration of some, and the 
terror of others. 



21 



Their enormous dimensions, their eccentric fiery forms and 
rapid flight will always challenge the admiration of intelligent 
people. 

Of their physical character there is much speculation, but 
very little if anything known ; and opinion upon this subject I 
regard of but little importance. 

Incandescent, carbonic vapor is supposed by some 
astronomers to be their chief constituent. 



It may be interesting to know that the comet of 1882 in its 
entirety, was hundreds of times larger than the sun and all the 
planets. 

The comparative size of all the Solar worlds to this great 
comet would be like comparing the size of a mouse to that of a 
mastadon. 

Its motion at perihelion is computed to be 180 times that 
of the earth in its solar circuit. 

Its period is calculated at about 800 years. 

In imagination, we can see and hear, the awful elementary 
excitement, incident to approaching forces of a comet in 
continuity with those of the sun. 

Like the meeting of ten thousand electric fiery worlds in 
space, with salute of all their batteries, the thunders of which 
would rend the farthest planet, did there exist an atmospheric 
conduct. 



22 



The awful grandeur and sublimity of the scene, at first 
seems to paralyze and then to inspire, our reason and adoration, 
of the power, and purpose, which called these fiery envoys to life, 
and then sent them in to the depths of the universe timed and 
commissioned, with authority, to impart vitality, force and 
balance, to our great central orb. 

It is said a comet has been known to move a million miles 
an hour in passing around the sun. 

This would be moving at the rate of 17.000 miles per 
minute. 

But I do not believe that comets go around the sun, but 
meet and pass before his face, and then return to the star depths, 
in obedience to a mandate, from the Supreme ruler of immensity. 

The comet of 1680 came when the temperature of the sun 
was computed by Newton to be 2,000 times that of red hot iron; 
and the greatest aphelion distance yet computed, is that of the 
comet of 1844, which is 400 billion miles beyond Neptune. 

Professor Trouvelot gives the length of the great comet of 
1843, at 200 million miles. 

A very curious feature to me, is this : In approaching the 
sun, and receding from it, the nucleus or head of the comet always 
remains toward the sun, and its train directly from the sun. 

The head of the comet of 1811 was 112,000 miles in 
diameter, and its tail was 115 million miles in length; its 
aphelion distance is forty billion miles ; this comet is expected 
to return in 3,000 years. 



23 



llalley's comet of 1835 was first seen in England in 1066 ; 
Dr. TTalley was the first to discover its period, and by its period 
its identity ; he traced it back to 130 years B. C. ; in 1066 it 
was as large as a full moon ; in 1456 its tail reached from the 
horizon to the zenith 140 million miles ; it was then supposed, 
it is said, to indicate the success of Mahomet 11th, who had just 
taken Constantinople and threatened the whole Christian world. 

Pope Calixtus lllrd ordered a prayer for everybody as 
follows : " Lord save us from the devil, the Turk and the comet." 

Donatus' comet of 1858 was discovered in June 140 million 
miles from the earth ; in October its tail was 50 million miles in 
length ; its nucleus, though comparatively small, has never been 
exceeded in brilliancy, and the beautiful curvature of its tail is 
said to have been without a rival in the history of comets ; its 
period is computed at 2,000 years. 



Some astronomers speak of comets as a part of the Solar 
system, but I should no more regard them a part of this system 
than I should regard Dom Pedro, Emperor of Brazil, a part of our 
own people. 

The same comet is not a very trequent visitor or traveller 
this way ; I would call them envoys, or a part of the plan of the 
universe, and a very important part, too. 

As I have before mentioned, their magnitude, forms, 
motions, and in some instances their Orbits are known, all of 
which are unlike the planets. 



24 



Some of these travellers are known to return again in 
calculated periods, and others go away and never return, and 
I suppose that others take the place of those that do not return ; 
and those whose places are taken here, most likely, go to some 
other part of the universe on equally important missions. 

Then let us consider these travellers special envoys, charged 
with great and vital powers pertaining to the life, harmony, 
and equilibrium, of that part of the universe, or star cluster, of 
which our sun is a humble member. 

It is reasonable to suppose, however, their functions to 
differ as widely as does their appearance : but their purpose and 
office in the universe, are as important, as their existence is 
real ; their distinctive functions, we may never know. 

But their purpose and constitutions, will be better understood, 
in the not far away future, as every decade extends the boundary 
line of discovery, and every age marks its revolution in human 
and divine ways and means towards a final consummation of 
God's purpose. 



Immensity, whether of matter or space, if studied, stimulates 
research, reason, and admiration, and. immensity without limit, 
is only found in the star depths : and this we may regard as 
God's Cabinet of Wonders. 

Did it ever occur to you, that we were put just far enough 
from the stars, to give us perfect night ? and that night, with its 
dome of shining worlds and burning orbs, is nature's grandest 
sisrht? and the consummation of all that is a-rand and sublime 
within the range of mortal vision? 



25 



We may " not see God and live," but we may see something 
of His Empire and live the better ! 

I suppose all are aware that the stars are suns to other 
systems, very likely similar to our own, each with its escort of 
attendant worlds, moving through space with rapidity, vastly 
beyond our comprehension ; they are known to differ in 
magnitude, motion and color ; some are supposed to be a 
thousand times larger than our sun ; they are known to have at 
least two very rapid motions, in obedience to fixed laws. 

In color, some like our sun as yellow, some are white, 
others blue, some green, others of a reddish tint; some are 
known to have two of these colors, others three, and some are 
said to have them all. 

In the pure, transparent atmosphere, of tropical regions, 
the color of the stars arc more brilliant ; there, it is said, the 
nocturnal sky is sometimes like ablaze of jewels, glittering with 
the green of the emerald, the blue of the amethyst, and the red 
of the topaz. 

In our northern latitude, there are no stars visible to the 
naked eye, which appear so distinctly blue, or green. 



Their colors may result from one of two, natural causes, 
such as tinted combustion, or a tinted atmosphere, surrounding 
them would produce the same effect. 



2fi 



Of their distance from us, nothing is definitely known, 
beyond the fact that the nearest star to us is beyond a certain 
limit, but how far, beyond that limit is to man, unknown ; and 
the limit referred to, beyond which the nearest star must be, is 
as much farther from us than the sun, as the earth is broader 
than a grain of sand. 

Arcturus. a star of the first magnitude, and one of the 
nearest, is supposed to move in space 200,000 miles an hour, 
but its distance is so great that a century would not reveal to 
us a change in its relative position to other stars. 

It is so remote that the strongest glass fails to reveal a disk, 
or to increase its size ; only a point of light is obtained with 
the aid of the best slass. 

We can see in a clear night, above the horizon, of the star 
cluster which surrounds us not to exceed 3,000 stars with the 
unassisted eye. 

With a strong glass there are millions ! visible, and we 
should remember, this number, is only a part of a single cluster : 
and the distance between any two in this cluster is likely to be 
quite as great as the distance between us and them. 

At a speed of a thousand miles an hour, it would take two 
million 200,000 years to reach a point a long way this side of 
the nearest star. 

The star depths consists of innumerable clusters, groups 
and galaxies, and their visibility is only limited by the 
penetrating power of the telescope. 



27 



These clusters, have every conceivable configuration, and 
they too, are without number, and we may regard each cluster 
with its millions, to have its center, around which each and all 
of the group revolve in perfect times. 

Professor Trouvelot estimates the star clusters about us to 
involve from 30 to 50 million suns. 

And the great Nebula in Andromeda, is supposed to contain 
thirtv million stars, and as many svstems, of shining worlds. 

Professor Proctor says, " as astronomers increased their 
estimates of the sun's distance and as observing more and more 
carefully the stars' positions, they diminished the possible range 
of the as yet undetected apparent motions : men's conceptions 
of the grandeur of the material universe increased. 

With Briarean arms science thrust back the stars into the 
depths of space, until the glories of the nocturnal heavens were 
changed from so many thousand points of light, to so many suns : 
many as grand as our own ; many far grander, some like Sirius, 
Vega, and Canopus, so much vaster than he is. that by 
comparison with them he seems the nearest miniature of a sun. 

But even this, stupendous though it seems, is little, 
compared with the scene presented when we rightly interpret 
what the telescope reveals respecting the depths of space beyond 
the domain of the visible stars. 

For each star we can see, thousands are made visible by 
the telescope of Galileo ; in latter times tens of thousands, and 
in the days of the elder Herschel, hundreds of thousands, where 
one can be seen without a glass. 



28 



With the best telescope in our own time, it is probable that 
as many as a thousand million stars can be seen, were every 
part of the celestial sphere examined. 

A thousand million suns, a thousand million repetitions of 
the o>lories and wonders which modern science reveals in the 
central orb of our svstem." 



Lord Ross's great reflecting telescope has revealed star 
clusters so remote as to take their light at 200,000 miles a 
second, thirty million years to reach the earth. 

I can no more believe in a limit to the physical universe, 
than I can believe in a limit to Omnipotence. 

Turn our investigation of the physical universe in whatever 
direction we may, we see in its face more and more of its breadth, 
beauty and benevolence, to admire, and more of God to venerate. 

We also tind God's eternal purpose, indellibly stamped, on 
nature's every feature. 

Again, every advance of ours in astronomical science brings 
us nearer and nearer the maker and supreme ruler of unlimited 
immensity. 

Who can contemplate the starry firmament in a clear night 
without feeling the awful presence and omnipotence of the Deity, 
especially when we consider (in God's hand) that each and every 
star, is the center and ruler, of an eternal empire of worlds. 



A 



I 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



003 536 905 3 






I 






